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  • The Doctor of the Afternoon Arm (1916)
  • Short | Short, Drama
Primary photo for The Doctor of the Afternoon Arm
The Doctor of the Afternoon Arm (1916)
Short | Short, Drama

Dr. Rolfe is a man of good breeding who has gone to the northwest to practice medicine. He becomes acquainted with the woman who runs The Afternoon Arm Saloon in Dawson City in the early days of the first gold rush. The doctor has become a...See moreDr. Rolfe is a man of good breeding who has gone to the northwest to practice medicine. He becomes acquainted with the woman who runs The Afternoon Arm Saloon in Dawson City in the early days of the first gold rush. The doctor has become a confirmed drunkard and loses his self-respect. In Dawson City lives a pair of orphans, Sue Kinsman and her brother, Ray. The boy is far gone with consumption. He does not want Sue to go to Dr. Rolfe because he is prejudiced against him. She finds the doctor drunk in the saloon. Pious Pete, who sits in the Afternoon Arm, reading the Bible, offers to go with Sue to see her brother. She accepts, and when Pete gets a look at Ray he tells her that the boy is in a very bad condition, and together they pray at his bedside. Subsequently the boy regains sufficient strength to be out of immediate danger and Sue attributes this to the result of her praying. She is now supporting Ray by working as a barmaid in the Afternoon Arm. She leaves Ray in Peter's care. Lou Loring, who runs the Afternoon Arm, is jealous of Sue when she sees the girl in conversation with the doctor and she tells her to go about her work. That night a gang of miners come to the saloon with bags filled with nuggets. One of the miners, "Big" Dan Clancy, is drunk when he gets there. As Sue waits on him, he looks her over and tries to embrace her, but the doctor, who has been playing the piano, intervenes, and a fight ensues in which the doctor is badly beaten up. To save himself, he grabs a chair and in his endeavor to strike Clancy with it he knocks down the overhead light. Shots are fired and when the lamps are again lighted the doctor is lying across a table with a bullet shot in his shoulder. He is thrown out. The doctor takes the bullet out of his shoulder, and Sue nurses him back to health, and upon his recovery he promises her to stop drinking. Ray has occasion to go to the saloon where the Loring woman intimates that improper relations exist between his sister and the doctor. Thereupon the boy goes to the doctor and requests him to put a stop to the gossip caused by his association with Sue, and the doctor promises that he will be more careful of his sister's reputation. Lou, still determined to get Sue into her power, now approaches "Big" Dan Clancy and tells him that the girl is too virtuous and that she will assist him to bring about her ruin. Acting on Lou's suggestion, Clancy goes to Sue's cabin, steals the girl with a couple of thugs and ties the boy to a chair. Ray breaks loose, smashes the door open with a chair, and rushes to the doctor's office. Meanwhile Clancy succeeds in carrying the girl up to a loft over the saloon. When Sue appeals to the Loring woman to save her the only response is a slap in the face and Lou then goes downstairs to gloat over Sue's contemplated ruin. The doctor now arrives with Ray and threatens violence to the Loring woman. She starts upstairs to warn Clancy, who, hearing the noise in the saloon, pulls his gun and shoots down the stairway. His bullet hits Lou as she is going up to warn him and she drops dead on the stairs. The doctor, seeing that the man from above is desperate, pulls out his gun and shoots to kill, hitting Clancy, who falls headlong down the stairs into the saloon. Ray then brings his sister, down from the loft while the doctor holds the rough crowd at hay with his gun to prevent their interference. Then the doctor sees that Sue and Ray get out of the saloon in safety. The Afternoon Arm changes management and Pious Pete has apparently won out, for in the last scene we see him as the shepherd of the flock presiding at a religious meeting in the saloon. Dr. Rolfe, no longer a dissipated wreck, is officiating as organist, while Sue and Ray constitute the choir. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less
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Director
Writers
Norman Duncan (story) | Robert F. Hill (scenario)
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Edit Released
Updated Apr 14, 1916

Release date
Apr 14, 1916 (United States)

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